In 2020, the Melbourne CBD apartment construction frenzy continues unabated. Alongside curtain wall towers, a less attention grabbing, but no less significant phase is emerging, marking a maturation of the city living cycle. First wave adaptive reuse buildings that marked the genesis of this process are now seeing their apartments further regenerated to reflect changing life patterns.
Project Name: Apartment 302
Studio Name: Shelley Roberts Architects
Project Size: 230 m2
Site Size: 230 m2
Completion Date: 2020
Buiding Levels: 1
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Photography: John Gollings
One such building is Sargood House, formerly a textile manufacturing warehouse for Sargood and Gardiner built in 1926, converted into apartments in 1998.
Stripping back the space, the elemental industrial expression of the shell provided a visible template within which living spaces flow within the orthodoxy of the apartment’s singular light and view vantage. Finding warmth amid cool materials, a once unappointed space feels structured by livability, with a clear focus on shared experience, whether that be eating, cooking or simply being together all at once.
The muted palette and deliberate under lighting amplify the spatial dimension of the large open areas and allow the occupants to take centre stage. Deliberately, there was a lack of strong color except for the black steel shelves of the bookcases together with their black back panels, designed to make the books appear to float. Color was to be provided later through the clients’ clothes, books, art, objects and furniture.
